From India to London Bridge: How the UK's rising engineering star Roma Agrawal helped build The Shard

Helping to build The Shard, London's iconic landmark, has been engineer Roma
Agrawal's career highlight to date. She tells Barbara Kasumu why
women should see past engineering's 'image problem' and focus on the career
opportunities available.

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Women in engineering: Roma Agrawal's career highlight to date has been helping to build The Shard.

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Roma Agrawal: 'I wanted to do engineering because I liked it. I didn’t really think or care about the fact that it’s male dominated.'Photo: Nicola Evans, WSP

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'It’s not everyday you get to redefine skylines,' says Roma Agrawal, a rising star structural engineer who worked on The Shard.Photo: The View from The Shard

Skills shortages in the engineering industry have been well-documented. By 2016 the UK will need to train nearly 100,000 new engineers and scientists, according to industry figures. Companies regularly bemoan the fact that they cannot find the right staff for skilled jobs. Government acknowledges the problem too: business minister Jo Swinson recently called the lack of women engineers ‘lamentable’.

But what's it like to actually work in engineering? If you're a woman in STEM, what sort of career opportunities are there?

I recently met with Roma Agrawal, a structural engineer who worked on one of the most iconic, modern projects in London:The Shard. "It’s not everyday you get to redefine skylines," she tells me – as her everyday work involves "making buildings and bridges stand-up".

Roma works for WSP Group, a UK firm providing property engineering and management consultancy services. The company has around 15,000 employees, working in over 300 offices in 35 countries on every continent.

At just 29, Roma has already been widely recognised for her work. She was awarded 'Young Structural Engineer of the Year 2011' by the Institution of Structural Engineers, ‘Best in Science & Engineering’ at the British Indian Awards 2013 and was a finalist for the 'Young Woman Engineer of the Year' run by the Institution of Engineering and Technology.

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Roma recalls her childhood memories of growing up in India fondly. "In India we love our maths and science, so I always really enjoyed it," she said. It’s no wonder she went on to pick A-levels in Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Design Technology. Like most of us in our teenage years, Roma didn’t necessarily know what career she wanted to pursue or indeed the degree to study but with the right direction from teachers she went on to study physics at the University of Oxford, before deciding to pursue engineering seriously.

“I picked up the Imperial College prospectus and decided on a structural engineering masters then got a job at WSP, and I’ve been here almost eight years now- so it was a good decision”.

National statistics show that women still only make up no more than 9pc of all engineers and with Vince Cable calling Britain the worst in Europe for recruiting women engineers, what’s so different about Roma and the company she works for?

“WSP has 20pc women so we’re already a lot better than the industry average and we’re always looking to grow that. I’d say structural engineering is still one of the more male-dominated fields, but we have a lot of women environmental consultants, transport planners even women that have moved from other companies say the same. We have a lot of working mum CAD technicians which is great, they’re the ones that draw and model the buildings in 3D."

Does a male-dominated career bother you?

“I wanted to do engineering because I liked it. I didn’t really think or care about the fact that it’s male dominated. I did a physics degree that was extremely male-dominated but it didn’t really bother me.

“If you’re a good engineer it doesn’t matter what your background is, what university you’ve been to, your gender, your ethnicity. If you’re good at your job it just doesn’t matter.”

She admits, however: “I absolutely think that engineering has a major image problem. Answers [about what 'engineering' is] vary from the guy that fixes our washing machine to the builder on-site. I think it boils down to a lack of awareness. Engineers don’t market themselves enough."

Roma is clear where the solution lies. “The UK economy is not going to do well without engineers. We need to get out there – talk to students and talk to parents and teachers as well. I don’t think you’re ever too young to have an appreciation for science. From an early stage there is an idea that some girls have that science is not for them, it’s not cool. Young women don’t get to see enough successful women scientists and engineers and you need to see people that you relate to. If you always see a 50 year-old white male, you might not always think of a woman being in that job”

Spreading the word

Roma is now a keen advocate for more women in engineering but admits it’s not something that came naturally.

“No one came to me and said you are one of the few women, one of the even fewer ethnic minority women, you have a responsibility to do this.

“I did not realise the influence I could have until recently. It’s only in the last two or three years that it’s really struck me that I can do something. I’ve been doing presentations on The Shard and its because of the project a lot of people have been interested in having me come in. Then I realised that there aren’t enough engineers and started talking about how to change this.”

Roma enjoys the variety that her job brings. She hopes to continue her work promoting engineering in schools and universities and just as she admired the likes of Philippa Forresterand Carol Vorderman growing up, Roma is destined be the new voice of woman talking about science and engineering and making it cool.